Yesterday I went to sessions at the Margaret River Readers and Writers Festival with people who I have long admired. They all talked sense, articulately, in an entertaining way …

• Michael Palin
• Clementine Ford
• Jane Caro
• Kerry O’Brien
• Robert Drewe

When I grew up in a South West country town, we had a small Soldiers’ Memorial Hall with a proscenium arch stage, red velvet curtains and dark, waxy floorboards – smelling of equal parts floor polish and dust, with an overtone of mustiness. The setup at the Margaret River Community Centre was quite different from my childhood: